Las Espada a Sangre Fria
by TJWasNotHere
Summary: Four Espada have survived the Winter War. One wants vengeance, one calls himself king, another is now a human, and the last one keeps falling asleep.
1. Vispera de la Guerra

**[Víspera de la Guerra]**

When Neliel opened her eyes again, her vision of the desert was clouded with twilight. She remembered being small, and she felt small, and she knew that she was little Nel Tu again. And the fact that she could look at her chubby toddler hands and remember when those hands grasped her Gamuza, slicing and murdering in the name of Aizen, made her feel even more of an alien in her current body. Where there had been the oblivious mind of small Nel, there was now the sharp-witted, quick-thinking mind of a woman warrior, and all her haunting memories.

Nnoitra.

Her cartoonish little kid eyes strained to see through the twilight. In the middle of white sand bronzed by setting sun, she saw white and black sprawled on the ground, and the sand around the shape colored black.

She ran and it seemed like it took forever to get to him on those stubby legs. But she got there, and it felt so eerie walking on that bloodstained sand in bare feet. She was only vaguely aware of Tesla laying nearby, covered in blood himself, as she looked at Nnoitra. He was face down and completely immobile, and she could just barely see the reddish tint in the black stains all over his white uniform. It had been hours since he was struck down. She couldn't believe she'd been out that long.

"Nnoitra-san," she murmured, and felt alien all over again hearing her own high-pitched voice. She took him by the shoulder and nudged him. "Nnoitra-san. Nnoitra."

She shook him and shook him, but he didn't respond.

"Or'hime-chan!" she shouted. "Itsygo-chan!" Orihime, the healer, and Ichigo, the hero – of course they could help her fix this. She became increasingly desperate as she called their names repeatedly. Finally, she stopped for a moment, to look down at the head of disheveled jet black hair, and said, "I'm goin' to find Or'hime and Itsygo. I'll bring 'em back to help you!"

She searched for any indication of a response and found none. Adult Nel knew, deep down. But little Nel went scampering across the desert, screaming "Or'hime-chan! Itsygo-chan!"

* * *

><p>As she ran, Neliel encountered Grimmjow's unconscious body too. He lay just as if he were torn into shreds, just the way Ichigo and Nnoitra had left him. Despite his unpleasant short-tempered ways, despite the way he treated Orihime and the fact he fought to kill Ichigo, Nel inevitably felt that pang of empathy for this fellow Arrancar.<p>

Now she'd found three people that needed help. It was a good thing she managed to find that Shinigami - a nice Shinigami, with silvery-blue hair and kind eyes. She was a healer.

She looked at Grimmjow, and she seemed a bit scared - Neliel knew she was contemplating the consequences of helping an Arrancar. But Neliel found herself begging to help him, and the Shinigami found herself tending to his wounds. He would be fine, despite his entire body being scratched and cut and bruised.

Nel led the Shinigami to Nnoitra, and contented herself with sitting atop a boulder and watching from a fair distance. After examining his injuries for a time, the Shinigami gave her a sideways glance, and then moved from Nnoitra to Tesla. Nel forced herself to be calm and watched the movements of the woman's hands healing Tesla with kidou. She hadn't used any kidou on Nnoitra.

When the Shinigami finished with Tesla and approached her again, she told Nel why.

Neliel hung her head. The Shinigami woman expected to see tears, but instead Neliel looked up at her and asked if she might be able to heal the crack in her mask. Seeing as how it was similar to a broken bone, she complied, placing her hands gently on the face of the skull antelope. The kidou flowed from her hands in shades of gossamer white and blue. As the waves of warm spiritual energy washed over her, she thought of Nnoitra, and of Ichigo and Orihime, and her as-of-yet missing brothers, and began to build the shield around her soul that would keep her from falling apart.

* * *

><p>As dawn broke, Neliel returned to where Nnoitra lay in the desert.<p>

Grimmjow and Tesla were "sleeping it off" in Las Noches. So far Neliel had not found any other surviving Arrancar. The Shinigami healer had left in the evening. Grimmjow and Tesla might possibly live, and Nel was once again in her true form, yet she couldn't bring herself to be grateful to her, after pronouncing Nnoitra dead.

Waking up in the eerily empty Las Noches, she donned a surplus pair of white hakama and a white jacket. She stopped in the adjacent rooms to be check on Grimmjow and Tesla. After concluding that they were alright, she left. On the bleached white sands under the unforgiving morning sun of Hueco Mundo, she walked alone.

She'd been his keeper, and she should be the one to bury him, even though she was a failed keeper.

She took him up in her arms, thinking she didn't remember dead bodies being so heavy, and she carried him to the part of Las Noches where he'd always sparred with her. She couldn't look at his empty face, so she didn't, if she could help it. But once she'd dug the hole, and she laid him in the ground, she caught a glimpse of the motionless eyelids. She shivered and averted her gaze and buried him quickly, all the while half panting at the labor and half sobbing dryly. The desert began to sizzle as the sun climbed further and further to its zenith. She retrieved his zanpakutou and stuck the shaft into the sand at the head of his grave so that the crescent blades stood high overhead like a grandiose talisman.

His blade made an appropriate grave marker.

Unfortunately, she did not know any prayers. So instead she said goodbye, swallowed her sadness, and went to look for more survivors.

* * *

><p>AN: Yep, the actual story's in English. Sorry Spanish-speakers, me no habla. :( Mais je parle en Francais un peu!... J'adore le fromage! Tu aimes le fromage?...

I am honest to God writing this on Publisher and copying and pasting because I don't have Word on this laptop and Wordpad drives me frigging insane, not having a spellcheck or anything. It's just weird.

If anyone has any idea how you can get Publisher to spell check in English and Spanish and possibly also romaji, or even just how to add accented letters without clicking "Insert" and "Symbols" every flippin' time, I will give you so. many. imaginary virtual Darkside cookies.

CC is welcome! Hit me! xO

Edit: If you noticed some changes, it's because I did in fact do some editing, though I usually _really_ try not to make changes after it's been published... (But the title was supposed to have "Las", not "Les"... *gets hit with a tube sock full of wood screws*) (And I maybe sort of forgot Tesla?)

There's so many characters in Bleach and so many of the Arrancar alone, it's difficult to write about. But I think that's partly why I like this, is because it's so challenging to juggle so many characters. :]

Did I say CC is welcome?


	2. El Phoenix Cayendo

[Warning: This fic was rated T mostly due to language, but since T-rated language tends to constitute words like "hell" and "damn", I feel I should tell you now that there's also some f-bombs and other colorful vocabulary too, pretty much all because of Grimmjow, of course... If offended, don't read - but as always I try to still keep things in good taste while capturing the character's... personality.]

* * *

><p><strong>[El Phoenix<strong>** Cayendo****]**

Neliel concluded her futile search after some hours of sprinting across the desert with Sonido. She knew from the Shinigami healer that Ichigo was gone, so she wasn't surprised when she didn't find his friends either. If any other Shinigami were left behind, she didn't find them. And she didn't find any other Arrancar, nor did she find Aizen. Apparently, everyone else was gone.

When Neliel got back to Las Noches, she was surprised to find someone there. She had been wandering the halls, slowly, navigating her memory and sensing Grimmjow's and Tesla's reiatsu, when she picked up on someone else's spiritual pressure. It was searing and virulent and it so confused Nel's mind and senses she was forced to block the majority of it with a thick layer of her own energy. Once she'd cleared her mind again, though, she picked up another reiatsu, but it was faint. The only identifying factor she could find in it was that it was the weak aura of a dying person.

She drew her zanpakutou and thundered forward with Sonido.

The source was behind a vast door that was ajar a few corridors away. Nel could tell from the ornate fashion of the frame and the lack of any lock or doorknob that this was the bedchamber of an Espada. She could hear someone's voice. As she stood flat against the wall and tried to hear, she noticed a thick trail of blood and dirt across the floor, disappearing under the door.

As far as she could tell, whoever was in there was just panting and muttering nonsense. She crashed into the door, slamming it wide open, and stood firm with zanpakutou readied as she observed the room.

She got one glance of a woman's body covered in shades of white and red, and the blonde hair on the bed, and the bed itself and the floor soiled with blood. A girl Nel judged to be about the same age as her, in a shredded white uniform, covered in dirt as if she'd been in a dust storm, fumbled with ragged bloodied bandages over the injured woman. Within a nanosecond of Nel's entrance into the room, she whipped around, drew her sword, and lunged at Nel with an animalistic shrieking roar, all in one breath.

Nel easily blocked, and they locked swords. For just one moment, when Nel's focus so intensified that time seemed to stop, she gazed into the eyes of this girl. Her eyes were heterochrome – one eye blue and the other a blazing gold. Nel wasn't as surprised at this as she was at her adversary's burnt skin. Beneath all the dust coloring her skin ghostly gray-black, Nel saw that she was badly burned, the marks running up and down her arms and across her face, making a mosaic of thin rivulets of blood over marred skin. No wonder her hair was so short and ragged; it had been burned too. Whatever happened, she must have gotten out of the fire barely in time…

The only reason she was still standing, Nel knew, was out of rage. With another screech, the girl raised her sword and slashed downward. Nel blocked. Immediately the girl raised the sword and slashed, meeting Nel's sword again, and the girl just kept slashing over and over again, the metal ringing as she fervently kept up her marathon of attacks. Nel held Gamuza out in front of her, gazing at this girl over the edge of the blade.

Neliel wasn't in the best position to counter. She was backed up against the doorframe, set inside that one small space between the halls of Las Noches and this Espada's vast room. Clearly, though, this girl could not think straight, so Nel did not feel particularly hurried.

"Ah...pah…"

They could just barely hear the desperate groan over their bout. The girl froze, looking back at the woman on the bed, who apparently could not make any more comprehensible syllables, but continued to groan.

"Harribel-sama!" the girl screamed.

"I'll—" Nel started, only for the sword to swing down on her, at its fastest and strongest yet.

"_You're in the way!" _the girl bellowed.

Nel took advantage of her small mental lapse in the time it took her to speak, and pushed the other blade back with her own. Her free hand, forming a fist, came up from the left and punched the girl in the gut, sending her flying into the opposite wall of the corridor. Marble crumbled around her. Softest stone, indeed. Neliel had only hit her hard enough to knock her back. She really hated to hit someone who was already wounded.

But that other woman was clearly dying and needed help immediately.

Now that Neliel had a clearer view uninterrupted by the angry girl, she saw the top half of the woman's uniform was so shredded it was basically nonexistent; she was covered only by the crudely wrapped bandages around her torso, from her chest to her navel. Despite the bandages, blood was seeping into the sheets. She was bleeding out. The woman panted, struggling for breath, even as she had clearly passed out again. Well, it was a deep enough wound to have damaged her lungs, and probably several other organs. No doubt this girl had no idea how to treat something like that.

While Nel was evaluating, the girl emerged from the rubble and dashed forward, screaming, _"Stay away!"_ Growling, baring her teeth, she leapt forward with sword in arm outstretched. Nel didn't even bother to raise her sword in response. This girl was getting weaker by the second. With Sonido, Nel stepped to the side just when the tip of the blade was an inch from her nose, and grabbed the girl's arm around the elbow. She only had time to raise her eyebrows in shock before Nel had swung around and thrown her like a shot-put back into the corridor.

"_Fuck this! You need to die, bitch!" _She scrambled back up from the wreckage much more quickly.

For one strange, introspective moment, Neliel wondered at the sick irony of seeing a rising Phoenix with skin burnt.

Before the girl could move again, a shadow came up behind her. A flattened hand committed a light blow to the back of her neck. She was knocked out instantly. As she crumpled to the floor, her body was caught by another larger figure.

"Nel-sama! We found you!" said a jovial voice.

Nel brightened. "Pesche! Dondochakka!"

Dondochakka, with his considerable girth, carrying the girl's limp body, and Pesche's slim stick-like body posed with hands on hips. Her brothers looked at her with an awkward mix of joy and abhorrence at the current situation. "We knew when we sensed the reiatsu," Pesche explained. "We'd been looking for you since those humans and Shinigami left, but there's no mistaking the spiritual pressure of Nel-sama in combat!"

"I can't believe this girl was so determined to fight you," Dondochakka said. "She's not looking too good, don'tcha know?" Nel nodded mournfully in agreement.

"So you have returned to your true form," Pesche said randomly. He took on a considerably more melancholy look as he said it. "Is it for good?"

Nel smiled. "Yes. I am once again Neliel Tu the Espada."

Despite their full-size masks, Nel thought she could see a hint of guilt or sadness in their eyes. But she just couldn't deal with that right now, when that woman lay dying in the next room.

"Help me out—Dondochakka, set her on the lounge in this bedroom. I want to treat her too, but—"

As the three walked into the room, Pesche shrieked at the sight of the blonde woman's ravaged body. "Th-th-that… That doesn't look good at all!"

"I _know_," Neliel said, approaching the bed. "We need to treat her now. Help me, Pesche… Dondochakka, please go get some water and medical supplies…"

* * *

><p>"Your suspicions are correct," Pesche said. "That is Tier Harribel, the Tres Espada."<p>

_Tres Espada__. _So strange to hear what she'd thought of as her title applied to someone else. "You know them?"

"I don't know the other one. I'm guessing she's one of Harribel's Fracción. As for Harribel… Dondochakka and I once saw her, not long after our exile… We heard you were officially banished and replaced at Las Noches, and we wanted to see who…"

Neliel sighed and smiled softly, shaking her head. "It's okay, Pesche. I know what you're saying."

There was a pause as Pesche and Dondochakka struggled to think of something else to say, and Neliel drifted off into the past. She never had the chance to miss Las Noches before, because she never remembered, until now. She could feel the difference time brought, just a little bit… but at the same time, there was a feeling like she'd never left.

"What will you do," started Pesche, "now that you're back?"

Neliel looked at him. His one visible yellow eye was gazing cautiously at her. Nel hadn't really thought about it too much. What was she doing here? She just treated the Arrancars' wounds, and slept in a bed at Las Noches…

It struck Nel that she had no particular reason. She shrugged.

"Nel," Dondochakka said. "Are you gonna fight?"

Nel's gray eyes traced the white floor, lost in thought. Subconsciously, she placed her palm on Gamuza's hilt. "If I have to."

* * *

><p>What would they tell her, once they'd healed and woken up? What would <em>she<em> tell _them_?

They had taken the Fracción to a smaller room without windows to treat her there. They would lock the door after visiting her, and one of them always kept watch, using Aizen's security cameras, to be sure she was okay. Isolating her seemed the best idea; Neliel didn't expect her to be calm after their battle. Perhaps she'd even lost her mind completely. It was hard to tell; when she wasn't sleeping or flying into a rage, she was just lying in her bed and staring blankly.

Her skin was indeed burned badly. They did what they could, but for the most part, the damage was done—she would be forever scarred.

They didn't forget about the other two, of course. Grimmjow was recovering well and always sleeping, which, ironically, made him their best patient. Tesla woke once, and despite his shallow breathing, managed to hoarsely murmur, "Neliel… Tu… Nnoitra-sama…"

Neliel looked in his one good eye with sympathy. She truly felt badly for him, despite their history – just as she never felt badly toward Nnoitra, despite _their _history. "He's gone," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

Nel watched as the color in his eye faded and his eyelid slowly closed. He leaned back, and willingly slipped into an oblivion of medicated sleep.

They had managed to get Harribel in a stable condition, but it would clearly take time for a wound as severe as hers to heal. Cleanly bandaged and medicated, she laid panting nonetheless, beads of sweat formed on every inch of exposed skin. If she was conscious, they could never tell. Neliel kept replacing the cold washcloth on her forehead as she mopped up the blood and dirt on the floor.

She was the keeper.

* * *

><p>Days later, Grimmjow woke up. Neliel would have known even if she hadn't missed the surge of reiatsu from him. He proceeded immediately to not only get out of bed, but go storming through Las Noches with his sword in hand, screaming, <em>"Nnoitra! Nnoitra! You fuckin' bastard, get the fuck out here so I can kill you!"<em>

Oh yes, that's why I didn't like him, Nel thought. That dark Hollow half of her wished he'd just died.

She met him in a corridor as he was stumbling around the corner. He was starting to limp, but clearly not giving up his pursuit.

"Who the _fuck_ are you?" he said.

"I am the former Tres Espada," she replied coolly, regarding him with steely gray eyes.

"Like hell you are. Where's Nnoitra?"

"He's dead. One of the Shinigami beat you to it."

Grimmjow bellowed with rage. The cry echoed down the silent halls of the palace. He punched the nearest surface – the wall next him – and punched a hole cleanly through it. (Another wall to fix… At least it wasn't quite as bad as the mess from Apacci.)

"I think that you should try to calm yourself and go rest some more," she said, careful to keep her tone free of bitterness. "You'll probably tear your wounds open again straining yourself like that."

Clearly ignoring her suggestion, he asked, "Where's that goddamn orange haired kid? I'll kill him instead!"

"He is no longer here."

"_Shit! _How long have I been out for?"

"Almost a week now." He scowled at her as if blaming her. Nel stared placidly back at him.

"So where's Aizen?"

"Not here."

He roared again, refraining from punching a hole this time. "Well, where the hell did everyone go?"

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "The only ones besides us still here at Las Noches are Harribel-san and a few Números."

He glared at her with his blue lightning eyes, his jaw set, like he was thinking of what to shout next. Apparently, for all the cursing he could do, he wasn't much good at actually having a conversation. Finally, he turned and began limping as briskly as possible down the hall with his zanpakutou on his shoulder.

What children Aizen had raised.

* * *

><p>AN: I feel like I'm writing about a Tarantino movie when it comes Grimmjow's dialogue... xP I usually do not use that high of an offensive-word-per-sentence ratio, but as we all know, Grimmy has a bit of an attitude problem... Don'tcha know? ;]

Plz to have CC! :)


	3. Legado de Locura

**[Legado de Locura]**

Grimmjow apparently liked to saunter around Las Noches with his sword, since he was doing so all day and long into the night. Neliel thought this was partly because he knew he wasn't supposed to be up. In his little forays, he was swallowed up by the vast emptiness of the fortress.

Las Noches was always such a chaotic place back when Nel was an Espada. As massive as the place was, Aizen's Army didn't have much trouble filling it up. A group of over a hundred Arrancar and whatever other strange occupants (i.e. Szayel Apporo's Frankenstein creations) had a bit of a tendency to be noisy, rambunctious, and eager to kill each other.

Now, it was ungodly vacant and lifeless. All these white and gray walls, void of any decoration, all these doors and windows, and unused rooms. It felt like some kind of enchanted fairy tale walked the halls and wondered what had happened to everyone. She knew Aizen had gone on the offensive. Between that, and the fact that the only Espada to return was nearly dead, she was forced to conclude that it did not go well.

She shook the thought from her mind, and told herself she would know for sure, eventually.

Neliel wondered where Ichigo was. Somehow, she always ended up filling these empty halls with her thoughts of Ichigo and his friends. She remembered they came from the human world—well, except for the Shinigami, though they fit in so well, too... She wondered if they were having fun in the human world, like she had when they were with her in Hueco Mundo. She wondered what they did and what it was like in their world… As an Espada, she was sent any and everywhere to search for recruits and strike down enemies, and the human world was no exception, but she had only seen it in shades of foreign and strange, passing blurs of maskless people and all their…. things. There were so many things, compared to the minimalism of Las Noches. All around, there was all this _stuff_ these humans kept. She could never figure it out.

Neliel wished that she could go there with Ichigo, and he could show her everything and tell her all about it. Maybe, when Harribel and Grimmjow and the Fracción were okay again, she'd go there and surprise him…

It was nice to fill her head with something other than confusion.

* * *

><p>Neliel had been sleeping soundly, dreaming about Ichigo and the human world, when she was hit with a wave of reiatsu.<p>

"Now what…" she sighed, sitting up in bed and sharpening her senses to the spiritual pressure. She didn't perceive Dondochakka or Pesche, and she knew their reiatsu. But, there were a few people, which should have been impossible with her brothers ruled out. Rage simmered in the reiatsu. A brawl, she realized. Who could possibly be fighting in a palace with only a handful of mostly bedridden Arrancar?

She got up and put a plain kimono shirt on over the tank top and trousers she wore to sleep, not bothering with the hakama or even her socks. She continued to pry for identities as she half-dressed. One of them was an Espada. She guessed it must be Grimmjow (the reiatsu was crude and violent like him, too). She definitely didn't know who the others would be, but she didn't feel very alarmed either, since their reiatsu was around average Números strength.

Grimmjow might have to be muzzled, though, and so she grabbed her zanpakutou as she went out the door.

Except for the brief buzzing left behind by Sonido, she made no sound.

On the other hand, Grimmjow was making a terrific noise that Nel heard before she even saw what was happening. Even when she did get in sight of it, she had to look for a moment to figure out what was happening. At first glance, it just looked like Grimmjow doing what he did best and destroying things. (At least _this_ time he was outside.)

Nel was immediately annoyed as she barely saw through the roiling dust that he'd released Pantera. Once again she sought the reiatsu of his opponent. Just as before, she detected average Números strength. So _why_ would he find it necessary to release his zanpakutou, especially when he was supposed to still be recovering?

In his pantherine form he proceeded to kick and thrash about in the dust of Hueco Mundo, occasionally changing position with a flash of Sonido. Neliel's eyes strained to see through the dust to whomever or whatever he was fighting. At one point, he kicked and sent the enemy flying, leaving a trail of swirling air through the cloud, but otherwise unseen. The enemy landed with a resounding crunch in the side of one of Las Noches' massive pillars.

He leapt forward into the air, readying a drop kick aimed at his victim. He was, of course, surprised to see Nel jump in front of him. With both hands gripping either end of her sheathed sword, she used it as a shield and took the full force of the blow on her blade. Having halted his attack, she locked onto his furious eyes, outlined in blue streaks like war paint.

"_Whaddya you want, bitch?"_ he snarled. "I'm in the middle of somethin'!"

"Sorry for interrupting you," she said, and with his leg still resting on the katana where it had been stopped, she shoved. To his complete shock, he was propelled backwards at such a speed that he landed almost 200 meters away.

Satisfied seeing him flying helplessly through the air, Nel jumped down to the ground and approached the tower where his target had been. She could see someone there, first as a silhouette, until she got closer. Struggling to stand up, already thoroughly beaten and bloodied, was Tesla. She gasped in surprise.

"_Tesla!_ You're awake? What are you doing?"

He made no reply and only glared at her with his one eye. She could tell just by his expression that he was fighting an intense pain. He was leaning forward and holding his stomach, or so she thought. Looking more closely through the dusty air, she saw his arm reached around and grasped his shoulder.

Neliel's eyes widened. _"Tesla…"_

With a sharp static noise, Grimmjow arrived next to Neliel and took a swing at her. She already knew he was there and she knew he was angry, and she really didn't care. She grabbed his fist and looked him in the eyes.

"_Bitch,_ I don't know who you _think _you are…" he growled.

"My previous introduction must not have been clear enough," she murmured. "_I am the former__ Tres Espada__, Neliel Tu Odelschwank!"_

With that, her leg swung around and she kicked him soundly in the face, combining the speed of her Sonido with her pure strength. His Pantera form disappeared, evaporating into glowing blue reiatsu, as he fell to the ground. The energy solidified into the sealed katana once more. Good, then, that meant he was out. He really must not have believed she was the Tres Espada, to underestimate her like that. And he was not going to be happy when he woke up again. But, he deserved it, Neliel thought, after unnecessarily releasing his zanpakutou, and mercilessly beating a man weaker than him even in _good_ health…

She walked back toward Tesla and kneeled beside him. He was only looking at her with empty eyes, until she reached out, and he shied away from her touch. Frustrated, Neliel grasped him firmly by the shoulder with one hand, and with the other reached around his waist, turning him so she could clearly see where he was clutching at his right side.

Just as she thought – his hand covered the area where his shoulder should've been. His right side was thickly coated in blood, glistening in Hueco Mundo's moonlight. His right arm had been severed.

"Tesla, did Grimmjow do this?" she asked, but he tore away from her again and glared at her.

"I don't need your help."

"What's gotten into you?"

"You should just help those other Números."

She froze. "Other… Números?..." She suddenly remembered – just after she'd been awakened, she detected the reiatsu of at least three people. Nel reached out again with her senses, and found there were two others in the vicinity. Their reiatsu was only somewhat weakened, but compared to the burst of spiritual pressure from Grimmjow's released state, it had been virtually undetectable.

"I'm going to just check on them then," Nel said to Tesla. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

Of course, he made no acknowledgement.

In another dash of Sonido, Neliel followed the strangers' reiatsu. She did not have too far to go; they were just out of sight by another pillar a few hundred meters away. From their proximity and the damage done to the structure, she knew they had been involved in the fight earlier.

She found two girls; one who wore a rather scanty dress instead of the usual uniform, stooping over a tomboyish dirty-blonde girl who was clearly passed out. Both appeared to be in decent shape, with only some bruises and cuts; Nel hoped they were as healthy as they looked. It would be nice to treat two patients who weren't _fatally_ or even seriously wounded. As Neliel approached the two, she asked, "Are you all right?"

The girl's head whipped around, her long pigtails following the motion. Her face held the kind of beauty that is fierce and relentless – fitting of an Arrancar.

"Wha – we're fine – wh-who are you?" the girl mumbled in one breath as Nel kneeled to take a look at her unconscious friend. Nel did not bother to answer until after she had checked the other girl's pulse.

"I'm a former Espada," she said. "Neliel Tu Odelschwank." She looked at the girl. She had one eye covered by her mask, and the other an incredulous lavender eye directed at Nel.

"F-former…? What?"

"I'm sorry to ask you this," Nel started, "but do you think you would be able to carry her back to Las Noches yourself? There is another person I need to attend to who is badly wounded."

The girl looked almost taken aback, a reaction that puzzled Neliel. Her next question was completely disarming. "Wh… Why are you so _nice_?"

It sounded as if she were more bewildered (and even a little disgusted) than she was grateful. Neliel thought for a moment, but couldn't really piece it together, so she just voiced the first thought that had come to her mind.

"I'm just trying to keep things in order for when Aizen-sama returns."

* * *

><p>Nel brought Tesla back into the palace, not just allowing but insisting that he lean on her; he was clearly very weakened from the loss of his arm, not to mention that he'd gotten up far too soon and exerted himself far too much, reopening his wound from the Shinigami captain. So, grudgingly, he put his one arm around Nel's shoulders and let her walk him back.<p>

"Tesla, what happened?" she asked as they walked.

He wouldn't answer.

She didn't bother to take him all the way back to his room. She dove into the first supply room she saw to find bandages and gauze while he sat against the wall, bleeding on the floor and staring up at the ceiling. When she saw him again after throwing together a first-aid kit and shutting the door behind her, she realized that the fact that he was missing an arm was probably the least of his problems.

"Nel-sama!"

Nel, just now kneeling beside Tesla and trying to staunch the bleeding, looked up. Dondochakka was bounding down the corridor. "Dondochakka, I –"

"What happened?" he suddenly yelled in distress. "Are you okay? Pesche is going to kill me – "

"Dondochakka!" she shouted. Trying to calm him and treat an armless man at the same time was at the very least frustrating. "Dondochakka, I'm fine! It's just that there was another fight, but I'm okay."

"Another fight?"

Neliel found herself smiling a bittersweet smile. "You act as if you've never lived here before."

Dondochakka gave a sort of grunt of acknowledgement, and all were silent for a moment as Nel concentrated on putting pressure on Tesla's wound. Her words echoed in her head. "Dondochakka, can you please see if maybe there are any medics around?"

"But, the palace is empty except for all of us, don'tcha know?"

"It's a big place. I'm afraid we may have missed some individuals because of that. I just found two Numeros out there in the desert, where the fight was."

"Really? Well…" He paused for a moment. "In that case, I guess I'll look around."

"Please hurry," Nel said as he turned to leave. "Ask Pesche to help if you find him."

"Okay, Nel-sama!" She was a bit jolted when he suddenly disappeared in a flash. She'd almost forgotten that of course Dondochakka was able to use Sonido, too. She turned her head again toward Tesla, who continued to gaze up at the ceiling with empty brown eyes.

"Tesla," Nel said, catching his attention (at least, she thought she did, since he looked at her). "Please, can you tell me what happened? Were those other two Numeros fighting too?"

Still he didn't answer. He just stared at her with those blank eyes. Neliel realized he should probably be feeling the full effects of massive blood loss by now.

"Tesla, are you okay? Are you getting dizzy?… There should be a medic somewhere around here, they can fix you right up, they're much better than I am… Tesla? Can you hear me? Please answer me – "

"He hated you."

Nel barely heard the words, and wondered if she'd heard right. "What?" She leaned in toward him. Seeing him this close, she really did not like the dead look in his eyes. It almost gave her shivers.

"He _hated_ you, so much."

There was no mistaking his words now. "Who did?" she asked, even though she knew very well who he was talking about.

She was surprised when he suddenly started laughing, a shallow, strangled sort of giggling that Neliel knew must be painful in his condition. Nevertheless, he continued to laugh, and his laugh got louder and louder. "He just… He so hated you! I couldn't… I couldn't figure out why… Never…"

Neliel really didn't know what to think, or do. She just watched, horrified, as his laughing fit became hysterical. Where was her inner Espada now to help her keep her cool? Surely she'd seen worse things in her life…

Finally, the pain seemed to catch up to him and he locked up.

"Tesla, breathe!" she said, shaking him a little.

He coughed, rolling his head back against the wall pitifully, and took a deep breath and said, "I don't need your help."

* * *

><p>AN: So who else saw the latest chapter of the manga? 459? I'm freaking out. In fact, I'm thinking I might take a two or three day break and write a little IchiRuki oneshot because I'm so ridiculously excited. Thought maybe I should mention that. 8D

Edit: The laptop I was using is currently without display, and therefore I cannot access any of the Word files I typed up for this fic. :( So... I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again! Here's hoping it's soon...

As always, CC is very welcome!


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